In a week when the Sultan of Brunei hit the headlines for introducing a new penal code which advocates stoning for sodomy, it’s both timely and perhaps auspicious that the revival of an acclaimed play about the downfall of Oscar Wilde arrived in Brighton as part of an extensive UK tour.
Co-written by Merlin Holland, Wilde’s only grandson, and actor/director John O’Connor, The Trials of Oscar Wilde brings to life two scandalous trials which ruined the life and reputation of one of our greatest ever writers.
Wilde may now be a gay icon and his genius celebrated worldwide, but at the time his ultimate conviction for gross indecency led to a prison sentence of two years hard labour and to his subsequent exile, decline and death in France.
The play draws on original court transcripts to dramatise Wilde’s notoriously ill-advised, ill-fated dalliance with elective litigation. Wilde begins as a peacock plaintiff suing his boyfriend’s father for libel, but as the first trial unfolds and a succession of details of Wilde’s private life emerge, Wilde is recast from accuser to the accused, and by the end of the second trial the once celebrated writer is a convicted felon, universally vilified.
In keeping with the original source material, Holland and O’Connor’s writing has a realistic, taut, forensic feel which keeps the story both dramatic and compelling from start to finish. The suspense is palpable as Wilde treads a dangerous path, though it’s gloriously offset throughout by Wilde’s famous epigrammatic turn of phrase which he persisted with even under such precarious circumstances.
There is a tremendous central performance from John Gorick who is wholly convincing as Wilde. The gradual transformation from overconfident plaintiff to hapless, helpless victim is beautifully drawn.
Gorick is admirably supported by Patrick Knox and Rupert Mason, who between them play all of the other main protagonists. Both managed the switch between their various characters with authority and composure, keeping the story credible and compelling as well as entertaining.
The other star of the night is the spectacular Royal Pavilion Music Room, which made for a genuinely unique experience. Before the performance we were told that Wilde gave two talks in that very room in the 1880’s when he was relatively unknown and at the start of his glittering career. How moving and resonant then that we could witness the dramatised story of Wilde’s downfall in that very same room. Credit must go to the Royal Pavilion events team for securing such a coup.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde continues its UK tour till June 2019.
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